


Nettles Joins Group 2

by PontiusHermes



Series: Tales from a VA Hospital [1]
Category: The Predator (2018)
Genre: Exactly What It Says on the Tin, First Meetings, Gen, Group Therapy, Hospitals, Mental Institutions, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Team, Team Dynamics, Veterans, non-romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 12:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16197656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PontiusHermes/pseuds/PontiusHermes
Summary: Exactly what is says on the tin. Nettles' first group session.





	Nettles Joins Group 2

'…I'm Nettles…'

Four men sat on chairs around the room, backs to the walls. Three looked at him silently, appraising, sizing him up, wondering why he was there. The other kept his eyes on the cards he shuffled rhythmically, almost unconsciously. The psychologist told Nettles to take a seat.

The session began. Nettles got the impression that his new group members had settled into a pattern, knowing and saying that the psychologist wanted to hear. He watched a man the psychologist addressed as 'Coyle' talk a lot, bouncing between insulting the psychologist, laughing, riling up the volatile man who sat next to him, exclaiming sarcastically about how traumatised, resentful and alone he felt, and insisting that, 'deep down, it's all about sex, right?' Then, about half-way through the session he, seemingly without cause, became extremely angry, yelled, kicked his chair over, and stormed out. The psychologist let him go, perhaps because he foresaw that the second half of the session would be considerably more productive.

A man who'd introduced himself to Nettles as 'Nebraska' sat across the room watching the proceedings almost too casually, with an odd look of amusement on his face. He contributed when the psychologist called for his input, saying all the right things, and Nettles couldn't tell whether he was sincere or not. The man with the cards to Nettles' left hardly looked up the whole session, kept moving his cards, and said about ten words. The volatile man didn't seem to like saying much either, apart from a few times when he seemed to get frustrated with the session, shot off a stream of curses, and went silent again. All in all, the psychologist did most of the talking in the second half, and Nettles couldn't work out how, exactly, it was supposed to help. They all rushed out as quickly as possible when the session ended.

Once outside, Nettles moved slowly, trying to trace in his mind the elusive path back to his room. Up the corridor and to the left… was there another corner? Or was that it? He walked along. Most of the doors were open, but each room looked approximately the same, with two beds and a picture of a meadow on one wall. As he rounded the corner he saw the man who'd left, the loud-mouthed Coyle, sitting in a room, on a bed. The volatile man, whom Coyle had spent half his time insulting, was sitting with him, patting him on the back and murmuring in fitful, broken phrases. This surprised Nettles, as the volatile man had tried to strangle Coyle at least twice during the session. The volatile man saw him looking and glared in what Nettles interpreted as a 'fuck you, man, can't you see my friend could do with a little privacy?' way. Nettles walked on and located his room quite quickly. He sat on his bed and thought about his new group members, and wondered how he'd fit in, and whether they would become friends. He hoped so.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Pontius


End file.
